


A Time For Thought

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: Ripples [2]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Leia doesn't know what to think, Obi-Wan is confused and troubled by Vader's actions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6451855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The Princess is right.” General Kenobi speaks up. “While on the Death Star, I was informed that a tracking beacon had been placed on this ship. Open the hidden compartments, Solo. We are not out of danger yet. The tracking beacon must be destroyed.”</p><p>“You were informed?” Luke echoes the General, looking confused. “By who?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time For Thought

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so I've been reading a lot of 'Vader turns against the Emperor' and 'Vader helps the Rebels' fics lately, and had to write something in that vein myself.

** A Time for Thought **

It is only once they make the jump to hyperspace that Leia gets a good look at the man she sent the Death Star plans to. Leia has only ever seen the man in old, forbidden holos from the Clone Wars, when Obi-Wan Kenobi was a general and a war hero. Now, as she looks at him, she sees that he has aged greatly in the intervening years. The sense of youthful vitality that she had sensed from the holos is gone: in its place is a stillness, a wise presence, which suggests that General Kenobi’s essential nature has been tempered since the Clone Wars. Leia has no idea what he had been doing all this time, but whatever he has been doing, it has left its mark.

She glances at Luke, and wonders what his connection to General Kenobi is. He speaks to the General with a casual lack of either formality or reverence, and General Kenobi is patient with him, which suggests that he and the General know each other well – although why he keeps calling the General ‘Ben’ is a mystery. Luke seems like a relatively naïve boy, if good-natured. For the moment, Leia will reserve judgement, until she has a better grasp of his character and his involvement with General Kenobi.

“Not a bad bit of rescuing, huh?” says Leia’s other rescuer, looking pleased with himself. “You know, sometimes I even amaze myself.”

“That doesn’t sound too hard,” says Leia, a little tartly. She hadn’t been impressed by Han’s rescue attempts at all. Luke, at least, has the excuse of youth and inexperience for why he’d made an inept rescuer. “Besides, they let us go. It’s the only explanation for the ease of our escape.

“Easy…” Han splutters. “You call that _easy?_ ”

“The Princess is right.” General Kenobi speaks up. “While on the Death Star, I was informed that a tracking beacon had been placed on this ship. Open the hidden compartments, Solo. We are not out of danger yet. The tracking beacon must be destroyed.”

“You were informed?” Luke echoes the General, looking confused. “By who?”

“Explanations can be delivered once we have destroyed the tracking beacon,” says the General, his voice firm and no-nonsense. Leia approves.

Leia and the others watch as Han opens the hidden compartments in the floor. Luke immediately jumps down into them.

“So what does this tracking beacon look like?” he asks, his eyes searching the compartment.

General Kenobi describes a standard tracking beacon, and Luke nods.

“Uh-huh,” he says absently, still looking the compartment over. Then: “I think I found it!” he announces.

A moment later he scrambles out of the hidden compartment, hand clenched around a small object. He holds it out for General Kenobi’s inspection.

“Very good, Luke,” says General Kenobi. He unhooks his lightsaber from his belt. “Oblige me by throwing that up in the air.”

Luke does so, and in a flash of movement General Kenobi activates his lightsaber. The glowing blade flashes forwards, and the destroyed remains of the tracking beacon fall in several pieces to the floor.

General Kenobi deactivates his lightsaber, and hangs it back on his belt.

“General Kenobi–” Leia begins, but General Kenobi turns thoughtful eyes on her and says, “Obi-Wan, please.”

“Obi-Wan,” Leia corrects herself. “How did you know about the tracking beacon? Who informed you?”

“I fear that if I told you, you would not believe me,” says Obi-Wan, with a flash of wry humour.

In a flash of sudden intuition, Leia _knows_.

“It was Lord Vader, wasn’t it?”

“ _What?_ ” Han yells; but Obi-Wan nods.

“It was.” His gaze on Leia is intent. “May I infer from your words that he assisted you somehow, as well?”

Leia nods.

“Interesting,” says Obi-Wan. 

“But what does this mean?” Leia asks.

“I do not know,” Obi-Wan says. “Perhaps he wishes to overthrow the Emperor and take his place.”

“That’s not what he told me.”

Obi-Wan’s glance is quick and piercing.

“And you believed him?”

“I…yes,” Leia says slowly. “He seemed… sincere. Bitter, and angry, but sincere.”

“What precisely did he tell you, Leia?” Obi-Wan’s eyes look into hers.

So Leia recounts her astounding conversation with Vader, careful to include his description of the Death Star as an ‘abomination,’ and his claim that he was responsible for the Death Star plans being leaked to the Rebel Alliance.

When she is done, Obi-Wan looks pensive.

“Do you think that he was telling the truth?” Leia asks.

Han scoffs loudly.

“This is _Vader_ we’re talking about! You can’t seriously think that he was _helping_ you!”

“I do,” says Obi-Wan thoughtfully, his expression a little troubled. “But the question remains: for what purpose?”

“You’re crazy if you think _Vader_ helped you,” says Han, shaking his head, and leaves the room.

Luke is frowning.

“You don’t think he’s reformed, do you?” His voice is doubtful.  Leia shoots him a look which makes him flush in embarrassment.

“I think it highly unlikely,” Leia tells Luke crisply, and looks back at Obi-Wan.

“Indeed,” says Obi-Wan. “A Sith does not change his colours for reasons such as compassion or kindness. I fear that there is a dark plot at work here, although I cannot discern its form.”

“What’s a Sith?” Luke asks, before Leia can argue.

She listens to Obi-Wan’s explanation of the Sith with only half an ear, too busy thinking over what Vader had said to her inside her cell on the Death Star.

_ To the people of this galaxy _ , he had said when she asked him about his allegiances, and some instinct told Leia that he hadn’t lied. However twisted Vader might be, however monstrous, in that moment he had believed himself acting for the good of the galaxy.

And in that moment, he may even have been correct, Leia acknowledges to herself. That is the galling thing.

“So a Sith is the opposite of a Jedi knight?” Luke is asking.

“Vader said that the Emperor was his master in every way that mattered,” Leia says abruptly, before Obi-Wan can answer Luke. “I always assumed that Vader agreed with the Emperor’s policies, but the way he spoke… Vader _hates_ the Emperor, rather than respects him.”

Leia looks to Obi-Wan, demanding answers. Luke looks to the Jedi Master as well.

Obi-Wan sighs.

“Vader and the Emperor have a long and complicated history. In Vader’s youth, Palpatine took on the position almost of a father-figure to him – certainly that of a mentor.”

“A father-figure?” Leia repeats, incredulous. “The _Emperor?_ ”

“You must remember that this was long before Palpatine revealed his true nature.” Obi-Wan sounded tired. “Perhaps if I had not allowed them to become so close, Vader would not have followed the Emperor when he seized power.”

“You said that he was a student of yours,” Luke prompts, eyes curious. 

Leia blinks in surprise.

“My padawan, yes. In time he became a Jedi knight himself, and earned a name for himself fighting in the Clone Wars.”

“I’ve never heard anything of this,” says Leia.

“You wouldn’t have,” says Obi-wan. “Vader was not always his name. The name Vader was given to him when he turned away from the Jedi Order and chose to follow the path of darkness.”

“Why?” asks Luke, his brow wrinkled. “What made him do that?”

“To tell the truth, I do not know,” says Obi-Wan. “I only know that he chose to betray us all. Believe me, I have spent much time pondering that very question.”

Obi-Wan’s voice is filled with old regret and deep sadness, and Leia wonders if he feels responsible for what Vader has done.

“Vader’s actions weren’t your fault,” she says.

Obi-Wan gives a short laugh, devoid of mirth.

“Were they not? I had the chance to kill him, after he had turned – he was gravely injured, and I told myself that he would be dead soon enough. Instead, he lived on for the next nineteen years, committing crime after crime against the people of this galaxy.”

“The Princess is right, it’s not your fault,” says Luke, easy compassion in his gaze. “You couldn’t have known.”

“Thank you, Luke,” says Obi-Wan, apparently deriving some comfort from Luke’s words.

Silence falls, as they consider everything that has been discussed.

Leia wonders what Mon Mothma will say, when Leia tells her that Vader has apparently turned against the Emperor. Much as they all despise Vader, there is no denying that his assistance could be an incredible asset, one which they may not be able to afford to ignore.

Leia is glad that the problem of what to do about Vader isn’t hers – she doesn’t think that she would know what choice to make, were she the head of the Alliance.

But she knows one thing for sure – Vader’s change in allegiances might be exactly what they need to win this war.

 

 


End file.
